Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO) Short Interest Down 32.7% in September

Key Points

• Melco Resorts & Entertainment's short interest decreased by 32.7% in September, with a total of 5,870,000 shares shorted, reflecting changing market conditions.
• Institutional investors are showing increasing confidence, with several firms such as DAVENPORT & Co LLC and Charles Schwab Investment Management boosting their stakes in the company.
• Analysts have mixed views on Melco, with investment firms raising price targets and ratings, leading to an average target price of $8.15 and a current rating of "Hold."

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ:MLCO - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 5,870,000 shares, a decrease of 32.7% from the September 15th total of 8,720,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,800,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company's shares are short sold. Approximately 1.5% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,800,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 5.9% in the first quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 85,972 shares of the company's stock valued at $453,000 after purchasing an additional 4,815 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 21.5% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 429,131 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,262,000 after buying an additional 75,935 shares during the period. ARGA Investment Management LP boosted its position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 29,760,953 shares of the company's stock valued at $156,840,000 after buying an additional 108,529 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 69.0% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 125,736 shares of the company's stock valued at $663,000 after buying an additional 51,327 shares during the period. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in Melco Resorts & Entertainment by 15.2% in the first quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 1,306,608 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,886,000 after purchasing an additional 171,960 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 39.62% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MLCO. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $11.00 to $11.50 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Melco Resorts & Entertainment in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research lowered Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Melco Resorts & Entertainment from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $7.20 to $9.50 in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Melco Resorts & Entertainment from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $8.15.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Stock Performance

Shares of MLCO traded up $0.22 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $8.33. 2,027,255 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,651,368. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.60. Melco Resorts & Entertainment has a 52-week low of $4.55 and a 52-week high of $10.15. The firm has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.08 and a beta of 0.71.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ:MLCO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.14. Melco Resorts & Entertainment had a negative return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 1.15%.The company had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.05 EPS. Melco Resorts & Entertainment's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Melco Resorts & Entertainment will post 0.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Melco Resorts & Entertainment

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, through its subsidiaries, develops, owns, and operates casino gaming and entertainment casino resort facilities in Asia. It owns and operates City of Dreams, an integrated casino resort that has 500 gaming tables and 800 gaming machines; approximately 1,400 hotel rooms and suites; a wet stage performance theater with approximately 2,000 seats; approximately 30 restaurants and bars, and 150 retail outlets; and recreation and leisure facilities, including health and fitness clubs, swimming pools, spa and salons, and banquet and meeting facilities.

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